Three’s No Charm: Ducks Get Shut Out Again : Hockey: Buffalo goalie Hasek is too much for anemic Anaheim in 3-0 victory.

The Mighty Ducks are laying goose eggs.

They were shut out for the third time in a row on Wednesday--this time by the Buffalo Sabres and goaltender Dominik Hasek, 3-0, in front of 17,174 at Anaheim Arena.

The night before, they were shut out by Chicago, 3-0. On Sunday, San Jose shut them out, 6-0.

That’s 12-0 over the past three games, and they have a scoreless streak of 188 minutes and 23 seconds. They haven’t scored since Joe Sacco’s goal at 11:37 of the third period of last Friday’s victory over Edmonton.

“We can’t put our fingers on it,” right wing Todd Ewen said. “If we could change it, we would. Sometimes we’re working too hard, sometimes not hard enough. We’re just not jelling. We’re just not scoring goals.”

Until Tuesday, the Ducks hadn’t been shut out twice in a row all season. Now it’s three, and they face Chicago--and perhaps goalie Ed Belfour--again on Friday. They can rest easy on one account, though:

The NHL record for consecutive games without scoring is eight, set by the 1928-29 Blackhawks.

The Ducks’ wretched offensive stretch has come at the most crucial point of their first season. Had they beaten San Jose, they would have trailed the Sharks by a single point in the race for the final Western Conference playoff spot. Now they are seven behind.

Granted, they have lost to some of the NHL’s best goalies--San Jose’s Arturs Irbe, Chicago’s Belfour and Hasek.

Hasek arrived with a 1.95 goals-against average--the lowest in the NHL. With the shutout, it is now 1.91. For an idea of how good that is, consider that Montreal’s Patrick Roy--often called the best goalie in the world--stood at 2.31 before Wednesday’s games.

“The last three games we haven’t seen the goalie make a mistake,” Coach Ron Wilson said. “Sometimes a mistake gives you a little lift. But we have to stick to the program. We’ll work our way out of this.”

The shutout was Hasek’s sixth of the season, and truth be told, his night wasn’t that tough. He needed to make only 24 saves, and one of the best was when he stopped Mark Ferner from close range during the second period. Shortly afterward, when the Ducks came down on a 2-on-1 rush, Hasek blocked Jarrod Skalde’s shot from an angle and somehow recovered to fend off Garry Valk’s rebound attempt even though he was already down.

Duck goalie Guy Hebert made some good saves, too, but Brad May broke the scoreless tie at 8:37 of the second period when two Ducks went to cover Donald Audette, leaving May open long enough to beat Hebert.

May added a second goal at 7:13 of the third, also assisted by Audette, and Alexander Mogilny scored the final goal later in the period.

The Ducks’ power play is awful and getting worse. In the past couple of weeks, the Ducks have sunk lower and lower in the standings until they now rank 25th at 14.5% after going 0 for 5 against Buffalo. Only Tampa Bay is worse--and marginally at that, at 14.2%.

The Ducks have scored on only eight of their last 98 opportunities with a man advantage--and only twice in their last 56.